Digitization as a Tool for Radio Frequency Utilization: What Benefits for the Nigerian Broadcast Industry?
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Date
2009
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Abstract
Radio frequency is a scarce resource and public property which must be managed and utilized for
public good. Its scarcity throws up serious challenges for managers of the radio frequency
spectrum, and even users across the world. There is obvious high demand for radio frequency for
different purposes ranging from broadcasting to telecommunications and marine navigation. This
global scramble for available spectrum requires a lot of intellectual ingenuity to manage in the
interest of the public. Most developed nations of the world, e.g. the US, have literally exhausted
their share of the radio frequency spectrum and are continually devising means of conserving
what is available and also exploring the lower and higher frequencies for alternative purposes.
This paper examines the situation in Nigeria and the role which digitization plays in frequency
utilization as Nigeria journeys towards broadcast digitization in 2015 not without considering
particularly, the seemingly rapid growth in the Nigerian telecommunications industry, which is a
great user of the radio frequency. It will consider the need for, and ways of sharing frequencies
among users for different purposes, and frequency conservation or dual utilization of frequency
among others, as ways of utilizing the limited radio spectrum